CNN has seen a rotation of guest hosts anchoring the 9 p.m. time slot since the exit of Chris Cuomo last year. Jake Tapper was one of the more recent hosts to occupy the space but has since returned to his afternoon time.
As CNN boss Chris Licht looks for a permanent host, Variety reported on Tuesday that the news outlet is considering the prospect of hiring a host from outside the network’s roster of correspondents to lead at least an hour in primetime.
As a result, all these changes have led to CNN seeing their primetime viewership among people between 25 and 54, off 21 percent in the third quarter; however, its average in the category was better than MSNBC’s.
Licht is his focus on CNN’s 9 p.m. hour after debuting a new morning program led by Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, which hopes to compete with morning heavyweight shows such as “Fox & Friends” and “Morning Joe.”
CNN’s CEO suggested Tuesday that the network’s primetime hours won’t be used for a conventional news broadcast. Instead, Licht revealed he would like to dedicate some of that time to so-called “perspective programming” or “informed opinion.”
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
